Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 31, 2026
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll,
he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”
He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,
‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”
And he said,
“Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The full readings of the day from the Lectionary are available here.
Here we see Jesus speaking to his hometown crowd in the synagogue of Nazareth, and it doesn’t go well. When Jesus reads a beautiful passage from Isaiah about how God has sent him to bring the Good News to those who suffer, the crowd first is glad, and then they ask, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” This question is a bit puzzling, but the crowd may be saying, “He is one of our own!”
Yet Jesus doesn’t seem happy with their response. Instead, he warns them not to expect favoritism and names some instances in which God helped non-Israelites instead of Israelites during troubling times. The crowd becomes so angry that they nearly throw Jesus off a cliff! This is a big reaction, but perhaps we can be sympathetic to their anger since his message is challenging.
Israel has a special relationship with God, and the idea that he would let Israelites suffer while helping others instead is hard to hear. When we hear this message today as people of faith who have a close relationship with God, the message is still hard to hear.
Yet perhaps what Jesus is speaking against is the expectation that having a strong relationship with God means special treatment or the avoidance of suffering. Jesus’ words remind us that God is free to help whomever he chooses, and sometimes this includes people who have little or no relationship with God.
On the one hand, this might make us unhappy when we see people very close to God experience suffering while God seems mysteriously absent. But on the other hand, it reminds us that God’s great love and compassion extends to all humanity, not just those who love God. And indeed, this is not something to be angry about, but can instead draw us to love God more deeply.
Prayer
Lord, how quickly the people would change their opinion of you. Sometimes you were the hottest thing in town; the next day you were despised and threatened with your life. Regardless of the situation, you remained constant in your mission and clung to your Father’s faithfulness. Please give us the grace to live with purpose and to believe in your presence, even when loneliness may seem our only companion. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Raymond only barely survived his own birth, yet went on to lead many, even his captors, to new life in Christ.
Raymond was born in 1204 in Spain, though his mother died while in labor, which prompted his delivery by Caesarian operation. This is the origin of his surname, “Nonnatus,” which means “not born.”
His father planned for Raymond to join the royal court, but he felt called to religious life. His father then assigned him the task of overseeing one of the family farms. Raymond spent all of his time in prayer and in conversation with the shepherds and hired hands, so his father gave up on his plans.
Raymond became a priest and spent all he had to ransom Christians captured by Muslims. When he ran out of money, he gave his own life for another Christian and was sentenced to die. His captors realized that he would be worth more if he could bring a ransom, so he was imprisoned and tortured, but succeeded at converting some of his guards. To keep him from converting others, his captors bored holes through his lips and locked his mouth shut with a padlock.
He was eventually ransomed and lived the rest of his life as a poor monk; he died in 1240. Because of the circumstances of his birth, he is patron of expectant mothers. His relics rest in the Basilica.
St. Raymond Nonnatus, patron saint of expecting mothers, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Raymond Nonnatus is in the public domain. Last accessed March 27, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.